Bettina Arndt Quadrant Online November 21, 2024
This week’s arrest of Alan Jones shows just how we have strayed from the principles of justice, with our media and police heavyweights flagrantly ignoring the rules we have in place to ensure a fair trial. This has all the earmarks of a hit job led by feminist journalists determined to take down the man who for decades was king of the airways, hugely influential, with a massive following.
Centre stage is SMH journalist Kate McClymont revelling in her ongoing #MeToo campaign targeting prominent men. She was glowing as police acknowledged that her four-year vendetta against Jones had prompted the police campaign to go after him. In classic trial by media, McClymont published an article last year full of graphic allegations of sexual misconduct. The NSW government followed up with a task force, which has spent months beavering away digging up dirt, with the help of McClymont’s efforts to recruit more “victims”.
Do taxpayers really approve of the spending of hundreds of thousands from our police budget trying to prove some decades-old claims of gropes of bottoms or other bits of husky young men by this 83-year-old? If Jones was not such a prominent figure, would police have expended these resources on allegations of this nature?
For the #MeToo mob, Jones is the biggest scalp of all. “The left has long despised Jones for his contempt for progressive politics, uncompromising social attitudes and influence over national and state politics,” wrote Aaron Patrick in The Nightly.
“The Get Jones campaign is nothing new in my life,” commented Jones last year, as he emphatically denied the allegations when they first surfaced.
The presumption of innocence? What a joke! This week we saw the media alerted in advance of Jones’ arrest and public shaming, which allowed the feral journalists and photographers to go on the rampage, staking out his apartment and police station where he was ultimately charged with 24 charges of indecent assault and sexual touching. There have been press conferences, with the Assistant Police Commissioner commenting the bravery of “the victims” and the Commissioner Karen Webb keen to encourage more: “There is no better time to come forward.”
Even The Australian descended into the gutter, leading their news with a tragic video of Jones pursued by the media scrum. And now Jones is out on bail – but under house arrest, which is a most unusual, draconian move, my legal friends inform me.
At the heart of it all is this extremely popular man who has spent much of his life getting up the noses of the chattering classes by campaigning for causes they despise, while endlessly putting himself out to help charities. Alan Jones first interviewed me over 40 years ago, and he’s supported me and my work ever since. He was one of the very few to give me a platform after attempts to cancel me.
I’m incensed at this gleeful targeting by the State and the media of this decent, principled man. And the underlying message makes me shiver. We are being shown that no one is safe in a system where accusers are celebrated as victims and allegations suffice for evidence. The bigger they are, the harder they fall; and the louder the celebration.
Bettina Arndt is a regular contributor. She blogs at bettinaarndt.substack.com
.
Image Alan Jones Nine News
Nelle's journey 